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Issue Date: March 4, 2007
Blog art
View, discuss, buy affordable originals
By Kathleen Conroy
If you love buying art for your home or office but don't have time (or money) for the gallery scene, consider shopping on art blogs, where enterprising artists sell their own work directly. In addition to expanding their markets beyond regular galleries, blog artists save the commission (15% to 50%) typically paid to gallery owners.
Many of these original works are postcard-size; costs range from $30 to $400. Shipping often is free within the United States, and shopping is as easy as click-and-buy during your coffee break.
An added bonus: more personal contact with blogging artists. Many welcome your e-mails and will happily engage in virtual conversations about art as well as their own work and how they go about making it.
Many blog artists create a new image every day -- or at least once a week -- so there's always something fresh to catch your eye. Best approach: Compile a list of your favorite artists selling in the blogosphere and go on a daily shopping tour of these virtual galleries. Most offer links to other art blogs, and, before long, you'll tap into a network of creative artists around the country. Here are a few blogs to get you started:
PaintingaDayProject.blogspot.com. Jan Blencowe, 44, of Clinton, Conn., is a "contemporary American impressionist" who sells small paintings of flowers, landscapes and vegetables on her blog. She includes a brief description of each painting and its process.
HudsonValleyPainter.blogspot.com. Jamie Grossman, 52, of Brewster, N.Y., is a contemporary realist who paints portraits of people and animals as well as still life and landscapes. Her blog includes comments on her works in progress.
Dailylifepainting.blogspot.com. J. Matt Miller, 33, San Juan Islands, Wash., displays paintings on his blog, but sales are handled through an eBay auction site. He prefersto paint objects with human characteristics. Miller isn't surprised by blog art's popularity. "In this age of computers, machines and mass production," he says, "the appeal of original, one-of-a-kind artwork is growing phenomenally."
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Give it the smell test
Organic breeders put the scent back in cut roses.
"Sweet Moments" is one of four new roses that was specifically bred for scent.
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Cut roses are popular (the No. 1 flower sold), and they're beautiful. But they are not known for their fragrance. That will change next month with the introduction of four new roses developed by South American flower breeders for online retailer OrganicBouquet.com.
The lack of scent in cut roses is related to other traits deemed more important by the flower trade, mainly "vase life" (how long a rose lasts). A flower uses a great deal of energy to produce fragrance, and this accelerates the bloom's demise.
"Breeders breed for color, shape, size and for long shelf life. And the longer the vase life, the less scent flowers produce, because scent is expensive from an energy point of view," says Natalia Dudareva, a plant biochemist at Purdue University who is investigating floral scent. "As a breeder, if you have a line that is more beautiful and lasts longer, you crossbreed it. Through crossing, scent was bred out."
Scent and flowers are closely linked in consumers' minds. "Most flowers use scent to lure pollinators like bees, so we expect flowers to smell good because many do smell good in their natural state," says Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential, a new book examining the $40 billion flower industry.
Gerald Prolman, founder and CEO of OrganicBouquet.com, agrees. "When I started my company, I spent time in floral shops, and the first thing most consumers did after selecting a bouquet was to put it to their noses," he says.
Organic rose supplier Nevado Ecuador spent three years developing four certified-organic, fragrant roses. The blooms will be available in April at OrganicBouquet.com ($49.95 for a dozen; vase life: three to five days). Prolman says that the scented flowers are "aromatic the way old-fashioned roses were," adding that the company is planning to develop more fragrant blooms "because that's what people really want."
-- Rosemarie Colombraro and Frappa Stout
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Kiss turns 100
By Bob Seligman
Pucker up: This year is the 100th anniversary of the Hershey Kiss.
The official celebration will be July 7 in Hershey, Pa., but the yearlong Kissathon began in January, when the U.S. Postal Service issued the "With Love and Kisses" 39-cent stamp. And two new Kiss flavors are planned, says Michelle Buck, Hershey's marketing chief: vanilla cream for Easter and mint truffle in October.
Some facts about the sweet:
The name. Pam Whitenack, director of Hershey Community Archives, offers two theories: When the Kiss was introduced in 1907, bite-size candies often were called "kisses." Another theory: Kiss describes a sound made during the manufacturing process. The candy was trademarked in 1923.
The numbers. Every day, 80 million Kisses are produced. The most Kisses are sold around Valentine's Day (1.5 billion) and during the December holidays (3.7 billion). A single Kiss has 25 calories.
The interrupted Kiss. Production was halted from 1942 to 1949 because silver foil was rationed during and after World War II.
The mega Kiss. The largest ever made was 6-foot-9, weighed 6,759 pounds and contained the chocolate equivalent of 675,900 Kisses. It was unveiled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, July 31, 2003. Its fate? "Ultimately destroyed," Buck says.
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